The Facebook Gaming App Wants To Turn Your Mom Into A Streamer

Generational gaps are carved by the trends you just give up on trying to explain to your parents. Like what a TikTok is, or why the most popular entertainment medium of our time is people watching other people play video games. But when it comes to streaming, we best start explaining now and explaining fast, because Facebook has just launched a dedicated game streaming app made for and by the people who have no basic grasp of the core concept.

To capitalize on the coronavirus pandemic, Facebook has just launched the Facebook Gaming app, its latest effort to become a major player in the streaming market. Why choose Facebook Gaming over all the other behemoths like Twitch, YouTube and Microsoft's ... I want to say, Juicer? Instead of trying to lure in gamers from other platforms, Facebook's goal seems to be to turn its billions of non-gamer users into a vast army of streamers and streamer-to-ers. They're focussing heavily on mobile gaming and making its streaming function so easy to use even your racist uncle can now underpin his quarantine rants with a round of Fortnite.

And there would've been some great synergy in the company who brought you Farmville catering to the kind of bored streaming audience that just wants to have another voice in the room talking about their favorite Hot Pocket while building a bridge to nowhere in Minecraft. But while Facebook Gaming might be for casual streamers, the app demands streaming audiences to be hardcore, dedicated viewers. "We don't want to be the background window in a Chrome tab while someone is doing their homework or doing something else," according to Vivek Sharma, Facebook's vice president for gaming. So good luck to Facebook's attempt to corner the market by appealing to the billions of streaming fans who want nothing more than to spend a Tuesday night intently watching their mom's friends play Words with Friends during the commercial breaks of Castle and Bones reruns.

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Top Image: Facebook